For the past 20 years, as popular Cajun musician Bruce Daigrepont plied his button accordion for the crowds who twirled around the dance floor at Tipitina's weekly fais do-do, his mother could always be found watching from a folding chair to the left of the stage, while his father stood in back, giving the doorman a hand.

Albert Daigrepont Jr., 86, and his wife, Jennie Rita, 77, of Metairie, were no feeble fuddy duddies. They were a lively pair who never missed their son's gigs at the Uptown New Orleans venue. And that's why their absence this Sunday will be so keenly felt.

"That's going to be so hard to go back there, " Bruce Daigrepont said Monday, eight days after his parents were killed in a car accident while evacuating for Hurricane Gustav.

The couple died Aug. 31 just outside Cary, Miss., where Bruce Daigrepont, his parents and his wife and daughters were headed to ride out the storm with relatives. Their three-vehicle caravan was just minutes from their destination about 5:30 p.m. when Albert Daigrepont lost control of the car he was driving. The couple was thrown from the vehicle, killing Jennie Rita Daigrepont instantly. Albert Daigrepont was taken to a nearby hospital where he died about 30 minutes later.

"I knew at that point my world had changed forever, " Bruce Daigrepont, 50, said Monday.

But while their absence will always be felt, it seems the Daigreponts' influence on their son will never fade. Daigrepont is a well-known aficionado of old-time Cajun music. He said his love for his culture and the music came directly from his parents.

Albert and Jennie Rita Daigrepont -- known as Ms. Jean to some -- were Cajuns from Marksville, about 30 miles southeast of Alexandria. The couple moved to New Orleans about 1954, but Daigrepont said, "culturally, my parents never left the country." His mother spoke French when he was a child, at a time when it was unfashionable to do so in New Orleans.

"My mother passed on her language to me and that's a key part of the music I play, " he said.

Albert Daigrepont couldn't carry a tune, his son said, but he could definitely pick a guitar. Instead of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Daigrepont grew up listening to his father play in the folksy Carter family-style guitar method, which became popular in the late 1920s and '30s.

"My music has an old feel to it because I have an older approach, " he said.

Jennie Rita Daigrepont was a housewife, while Albert Daigrepont drove buses for the New Orleans' public transit line, or at least that was his official job. Daigrepont said his father's true passion was carpentry.

Albert Daigrepont built the porch on his son's Metairie home and hand-crafted the two crawfish-adorned, pine accordion carriers that Daigrepont still uses for local shows. His father also learned to repair and tune accordions.

Albert Daigrepont served in the Navy during World War II, and often told stories about driving Marines to the shores of Iwo Jima during the invasion. He was a prolific storyteller whose tales of real life were often funnier than fiction.

Daigrepont recounted a few of his father's comical stories, including one about a man dubbed, "The Sniffer, " a rather creepy passenger on his bus routes who was often caught taking a whiff of recently vacated seats.

His parents shared a playful sense of humor they passed on to their son.

"They were great parents. They supported what I do and loved my family and loved me, " he said.

As Daigrepont struggles with his grief, he also embraces the gifts from his parents: a passion for Cajun culture, the music, the food and the love of family.

"It's going to take a long time to get used to them not being there at all."

. . . . . . .

Michelle Hunter can be reached at mhunter@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7054.